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Hi, Tracy,
We had to take you up on your arousal challenge. 😄You’ll see how ramped up she was. She did do some well, others the excitement overwhelmed. I think both the disc and the squirrel get high arousal, the tennis ball a bit less so she’s bette able to pay attention to my verbals. I know that one time I just kept repeating the verbal until she responded. She just was so fixated on the toy! I do sometimes take toy breaks in the middle of training sessions, so she is used to “work-play-work”. I wonder if that makes this exercise harder for her? I think she did pretty well, especially since it was our first go at this. Comments? Thanks, Kristie
Hi, Tracy,
Here’s one more. This is our first time at the wing exercise. My verbal is around. I was getting eaten alive, so I think my action was a bit weak. I did a couple of simple commands from close to the wing, then added distance and some toys. You can see how motivated she is to chase those saucer toys! Kristie
Hello, again!
Here is our second step on the Skills Set with distractions on verbals. We’re still working on getting “spin” as automatic as “sit” but it seems to be coming along. The gnats and deer flies are horrid right now, so some of my flapping and prancing is chasing away the bugs from my eyes. Keiko must think I’m losing it……Hi, Tracy,
Finally back with a video or two. We’ve had rain 9 days out of 10 including some real downpours, and I just had an abscessed tooth extracted, so we’ve not done a lot. Here is our take on the Transition to Trials part 3. Working in the driveway was new for Keiko, and she could hear and see traffics down on the road. What I thought was really interesting was she kept wanting to go into the agility field. That’s her fun place, and she thought we should go there. I followed her and was pleased when she would turn around and look and realize that was what was getting the reward this time.
Also, I’ve been using the “get it” activity at the beginning of her agility class while the other folks are getting set up. Seems like a good place to practice. 😀
Hello, again. 🙂
We started working on the Skill sets, #1. Not only were her sisters watching, but Daddy was walking down the stairs right past us as we worked. That’s a big distraction, and she stuck with it! ;). Our spin is still a tad weak. I haven’t really spent a lot of time on tricks with her (shame on me!) so we’re getting them going, and I’m still using hand signals. Otherwise, she handled this pretty well. ~Kristie
Hello! Here’s TtT Step 2 – complete with an open bag of treats, her favorite chase-it toy, and her sisters on the other side of a gate, staring at her and (occasionally) making sad noises. ;). I thought this went well, too. 🙂
Hi, Tracy,
I’m glad we have some indoor exercises in Summer Camp. The monsoons (these are related to the Tropical Storm) are washing through, so inside it is for a couple of days. Okay, here is Transition to Trials Step 1 from yesterday. I thought this went fine. ~Kristie
Thanks, Tracy. I realize that one shot won’t do it, so I’ll be trying this for a while and see where we get. It’s not that she doesn’t like tunnels – Yuki has her Outstanding Elite Tunnelers title in NADAC!! That’s what’s been so frustrating – she loves them, so I have to figure out what I’m doing (or not doing) that will make the difference. Will keep you posted. 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing your ideas regarding the tunnel issue. Yes, it makes sense – and was one of the things I tried. Also, I tried throwing a threat or ball (her favorite toy) upon her exit of a tunnel. Both of these worked fine, as long as she knew the toy or treat were there.
However – and I think this is a BIG however – I didn’t practice doing any handling. No one else ever suggested that, and I didn’t think of it myself. It was just “send and get a reward” and I was pretty much stationary or moving to throw the reward. She will go through a straight tunnel no problem, and she’ll go through curved ones that are in flow of the course. It’s the stopping of my motion and a tunnel where both ends are visible so “what’s next” isn’t obvious. Hmm… I really like the idea of trying different handling and rewarding her movement through the tunnel no matter what I’m doing. Thanks!! I’ll go give this a try and get back to you. :). ~KristieWow, Tracy! Your last comment is ringing all sorts of bells in my head. Tunnels have always been an issue for me and Yuki. She loves them – plays in them all the time with her sisters, and I can send her to a tunnel that is 35 feet away on a course, even on the other side of a dogwalk, and she’ll fly there. But, if the tunnel is right there in front of us, and curves so I am not in motion except to indicate the tunnel entrance, she balks and barks and carries on. It’s become a real issue for us. I have had at least 6 different instructors (including some “big” names) all try to offer suggestions, but no one has been able to give me anything that works. I have become convinced that she doesn’t like the idea of heading into a tunnel in these situations because she doesn’t know where I’ll be when she comes out, and where she is supposed to go next. I think that’s exactly what you’re saying, too.
SOOOO, any ideas about sending and getting her to go into a basically “blind” tunnel would be lovely. I know this is very off-topic for this summer camp, but she’s the only agility dog I’ve had this issue with, and I want to avoid it with Keiko at all costs. If this is not an appropriate question, I’ll understand. I just had to react to your comment because it is so very close to home for me. ~KristieHI, Tracy,
Great feedback, as usual. :). We’ve had alternating days of cool monsoons, and then horrid humidity and heat, so I did a few runs early in the day on 2 different days. The four clips here: #1: Cool wet day, first run. I loved her energy, liked the first tight turn out of the short tunnel. I still babysat the tunnel exit after the poles too much, but did move down the line a bit better and got in the ending I was trying for. #2: This is a surprise visit from my 7-year-old, Yuki. She has been out of agility for a year, and now, after 10 months of PT and treatments, has the go-ahead to “do agility” again. I wanted to see how she’d do this course – and I was too far behind her at the end. As you can see and hear, she told me what she thought of my handling at that point. ;). #3: Hot, humid day. First run. Lots of nice energy. I did babysit the shorter tunnel on the first pass, but managed to make myself move when she was in the tunnel after the poles. Muffed up the end again. I disconnected as she come over jump 12, so there was no way she was going to have any idea what I wanted on that last jump. She tried. What a good girl. #4: Last run. I really tried not to baby sit after the shorter tunnel, and was ahead enough to cue a deceleration and connect for the last jump to the tunnel. Not perfect, but better, I think.
Okay, let the comments rip! 🙂
~Kristie
Hello! I thought about timing the turns in that last exercise, but realized the use of the placed reward would negate getting anything that was accurate. Looking forward to those upcoming timed exercises. 🙂
Knowing we were due for lots of rain, I decided to sneak in one more visit to the field yesterday to try the first jumpers course. Poured last night, then let up for a bit late this am, so we visited the course again. The set-up was a bit tight yesterday, and I moved things apart a bit more today – not perfect, but I think okay. The 4 clips here are: #1 is a full run from yesterday. The rest are from today: #2 – Weave work; #3 – connection for turn after tunnel work; #4 Full run.
We had some interesting “oops” areas. Yesterday, my send to the final tunnel didn’t work well, and she kept going around the other equipment on the edge of the field on her way to the tunnel. Today, I held back and did a wrap there, and that worked much better. Other ideas? Also, Keiko had some trouble with the weaves. I realized we haven’t been focused on them lately – not good. I plan to make one or two passes on the poles a daily or very-other-day event. Sometimes 6, once in a while 12, but enough to keep us both happy. ;). The other area I obviously need to work on is when she is exiting a tunnel and I need her to make a sharp turn toward me, rather than taking the first obstacle she sees (in this case, the tire). I thought seeing my body and hand go by the end and calling her would cue her to turn, but obviously not. Looking forward to your feedback! ~Kristie
Good (sticky and very buggy) morning!
Humid but lower temps, and the rain is holding off until noon, so we did one more sequence set, incorporating your suggestions. I tried a BC after the seesaw, which was very easy since I was also using her lotus as a target for the 2o2o. I do have to move more for the BC and far wing wrap than for the close wing wrap, which is probably why I prefer it. Keiko seems able to handle either one. What do you think? Thanks! ~KristieHi, Tracy,
Thanks as always for the spot-on feedback. I knew you’d say something about the seesaw end behavior. I thought I wanted a 2o2o since that’s what I want on the other contacts. I’ll have to get consistent and work on those stops. Right now, she’s exiting nicely on the “run” – but once she’s really confident, I don’t know if she’ll be a “flyer” or not. Better to work on a stop and perhaps phase it out than to ignore it now and then have to back-track, correct?I know she looks confident here, but she hasn’t been happy with the seesaw in her class location, so we’re just doing the “bang” game there. What should I be looking for before we move on from that?
I’ll be looking forward to the slice/wrap sessions. I think I tend to use wraps because they save my knee more than running for a slice. It’s a bummer to get to an age where you think not only about what works for the dog, but you have to think about what your body will do, too…
Today is supposed to be hotter than yesterday, so we went out for a brief fun session, but won’t be doing any taping today. Then there is heavy rain predicted for the next 3 days. Temps will go down, which is nice.
HI, Tracy,
I don’t know what it’s like in Virginia right now, but it’s brutally hot here – 98 with humidity. Doing very little agility outside. Even in the am it’s hard to get up too much zip. Got up early this morning to do some more of the sequence sets, this time with the seesaw. You’ll recognize 3 of the sets. The last one is a conglomeration. ;). I was pleased with her stop at the bottom of the seesaw when I was at a distance, and I tried to be much better staying connected on our turns. How’s it look?
Hope you’re staying cool. :). ~Kristie
